Martin Canning

Martin Canning (born 3 December 1981) is a Scottish football player and coach. He is currently assistant head coach at Millwall.

Martin Canning

Canning in 2025.
Personal information
Date of birth	(1981-12-03) 3 December 1981 (age 43)
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	Millwall (assistant head coach)
Youth career
	Clydebank[1]
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1999–2006	Ross County	111	(9)
2001–2002	→ Peterhead (loan)	21	(0)
2006–2008	Gretna	41	(1)
2008	Hibernian	12	(0)
2008–2017	Hamilton Academical	215	(8)
Total		400	(18)
Managerial career
2015	Hamilton Academical (caretaker)
2015–2019	Hamilton Academical
2022	Sunderland (caretaker)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

During his playing career, Canning played as a central defender for Ross County, Peterhead, Gretna, Hibernian and Hamilton Academical.

Playing career

Canning playing for Hamilton Academical.

Canning became Gretna's record signing in January 2006 after joining from Ross County in a £60,000 deal.^[1] He made 46 appearances for Gretna, scoring once against Livingston, and helped them to promotion to the Scottish Premier League in the 2006–07 season. He was cup tied for their run to the 2006 Scottish Cup Final.^[2]

His contract with Gretna was terminated by mutual consent on 31 January 2008 due to the ensuing financial crisis at Gretna.^[3] Canning had to waive money he was due by Gretna to ensure that he was released from his contract^[4] and he was subsequently named in a creditors list published by Gretna's administrator in April 2008.^[5]

In February 2008, Canning signed a 16-month contract^[4] on 16 February 2008 with Hibernian after impressing in two reserve games while on trial.^[6] Canning made 12 league appearances for Hibs, but was released on 1 September 2008 to make way for new signing Souleymane Bamba.^[7] Canning then signed for Hamilton Academical on the same day.^[8]

Canning started coaching Hamilton's under-17 team, while continuing his playing career, in the 2012–13 season.^[9] He signed a new one-year contract with Hamilton in May 2013.^[10] A year later, he was part of the Accies team which won promotion to the Scottish Premiership, via a play-off win over his previous club Hibernian.^[11] Canning maintained his playing registration after being appointed Hamilton manager in 2015. Despite only making three first team appearances in the 2015–16 season due to injury, he extended his playing contract by another year in May 2016.^[12]

Coaching career

Canning became interim player-manager of Hamilton Academical in January 2015, after Alex Neil left to join Norwich City.^[13] He was appointed manager on a permanent basis later that month, despite having lost all three matches as caretaker manager.^[14]

Hamilton finished 11th in the 2016–17 Scottish Premiership, then avoided relegation by winning a play-off against Dundee United.^[15][16] Hamilton again avoided relegation in 2017/18 by finishing in 10th place. Canning left Hamilton in January 2019 by mutual consent.^[17][18]

Since departing Hamilton, Canning has been at Real Betis, Celtic, Leicester City, Preston North End, Aberdeen and Sunderland to assist with coaching.^[19]

In August 2019, Canning took on the role as Head of Coaching at North Kelvin United on an interim basis. In November 2019, he was appointed permanently.^[20]

Canning was appointed assistant manager of Stoke City in September 2022.^[21] He left Stoke in December 2023.^[22]

In December 2024, Canning was appointed assistant head coach of Championship side Millwall, once again supporting the newly appointed Alex Neil.^[23]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Ross County	1999–2000[24]	Scottish Second Division	6	0	0	0	0	0	2[a]	0	2	0
	2000–01[25]	Scottish First Division	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	1
	2001–02[26]	Scottish First Division	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
	2002–03[27]	Scottish First Division	25	2	0	0	3	0	2[a]	0	30	2
	2003–04[28]	Scottish First Division	15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	0
	2004–05[29]	Scottish First Division	33	4	3	0	2	0	4[a]	1	42	5
	2005–06[30]	Scottish First Division	19	2	1	0	2	0	2[a]	0	24	2
	Total		111	9	4	0	7	0	10	1	132	10
Peterhead (loan)	2001–02[26]	Scottish Third Division	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21	0
Gretna	2005–06[30]	Scottish Second Division	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
	2006–07[31]	Scottish First Division	34	1	2	0	0	0	3[b]	0	39	1
	2007–08[32]	Scottish Premier League	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	Total		41	1	2	0	0	0	3	0	46	1
Hibernian	2007–08[32]	Scottish Premier League	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	11	0
	2008–09[33]	Scottish Premier League	1	0	0	0	0	0	1[c]	0	2	0
	Total		12	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	13	0
Hamilton Academical	2008–09[33]	Scottish Premier League	30	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	32	1
	2009–10[34]	Scottish Premier League	37	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	40	1
	2010–11[35]	Scottish Premier League	23	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	26	0
	2011–12[36]	Scottish First Division	32	1	2	0	1	0	1[a]	0	36	1
	2012–13[37]	Scottish First Division	33	1	3	0	2	0	0	0	38	1
	2013–14[38]	Scottish Championship	34	1	1	0	3	0	4[d]	0	42	1
	2014–15[39]	Scottish Premiership	23	3	1	0	3	0	0	0	27	3
	2015–16[40]	Scottish Premiership	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
	Total		215	8	13	0	11	0	5	0	244	8
Career total			400	18	19	0	18	0	19	1	456	19

1. Appearances in Scottish Challenge Cup
2. One Appearance in Scottish Challenge Cup and two in UEFA Cup
3. Appearance in UEFA Intertoto Cup
4. Appearances in Scottish Championship play-offs

Managerial statistics

As of match played 27 August 2022

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Hamilton Academical (caretaker)		9 January 2015	23 January 2015	3	0	0	3	2	10	−8	000.00
Hamilton Academical		23 January 2015	29 January 2019	176	42	44	90	185	294	−109	023.86
Sunderland (caretaker)		26 August 2022	30 August 2022	1	0	0	1	0	1	−1	000.00
Total				180	42	44	94	187	305	−118	023.33

Honours

• Scottish Premiership Manager of the Month: November 2017^[41]